1. Field
The present disclosure is directed towards processing and handling information requests made using Uniform Resource Locaters in TCP/IP networks, using a domain name registration and server system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Domain Name System (DNS) is one of two principal name systems used by the Internet, the Internet Protocol (IP) address system being the other. The Domain Name System defines domain names and provides translation services between domain names and numeric IP addresses. The DNS is implemented using Internet name servers and the IP communications protocol. A name server stores and maintains DNS records, such as address (A) records, name server (NS) records, and mail exchanger (MX) records for a domain name. A DNS record associating domain names to specific IP addresses may be referred to as a zone file. A DNS name server responds to queries that specify domain names with the corresponding IP addresses contained in its zone file. Thus, the DNS operates as an Internet service that translates alphabetic domain names into numeric IP addresses required for accessing information using the World Wide Web or other Internet services. For example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to 198.116.332.6 using an association stored in a DNS zone file.
Information in a zone file is created and maintained via a domain name registration service. Designated entities are authorized to create and maintain DNS records. A person desiring to register a new domain name may submit a registration request to one of these designated entities. The registration service checks to ensure that the domain name is, in fact, new and not already in use, and ensures that the applicant complies with certain administrative requirements for registration of domain names, in exchange for a nominal fee. Once all registration requirements are satisfied and fees are paid, the registration authority causes the relevant DNS records to be updated with the new information. Thereafter, queries using the newly registered domain name will be directed to an IP address specified in the zone file for that name.
Those who own trademarks or well-known company or brand names or domain names may be vulnerable registration of domain names that are variants of the trademarks or well-known names, such as common misspellings. Such variant domain names may be used to confuse consumers, compete with the trademark owner, disparage the trademark, company or brand name, extract payment by the owner to transfer the domain name, or simply to exploit goodwill acquired by the original domain name for another purpose. For example, a company called “Acme” having a website corresponding to a domain name acme.com may be vulnerable to someone registering the domain name acmesucks.com. For further example, a high-traffic domain such as homedepot.com might be exploited by those registering misspellings of the domain, such as, for example, hmedepot.com. It can be expensive and burdensome for holders of well-known domain names or marks to protect these properties by registering a large number of common variations. Defensive registration of variant names becomes increasingly expensive as the number of characters in the domain name increases.
In current practice, a user registers domain names individually. However, existing domain name server technology also allows the use of a wildcard to direct all traffic requesting sub-domains of a root domain to be directed to a single IP address. For example, a DNS record formatted as “*.shustercom” may direct all requests using domain and sub-domain names ending in “.shuster.com” to a single IP address, e.g., 151.207.245.67. Additionally, current DNS practice permits exceptions to be configured such that, for example, internal.shustercom points to a different IP address, e.g., 151.207.245.67, while all sub-domains not specifically configured are defaulted to point to a different address such as 151.207.245.68.
The transmission of data from a web browser to a web server, from a mail client to a mail server, and from other clients to their respective servers (in from the server back to the client) are provided to allow the servers and clients to identify the domain name for which the transaction is being conducted. For example, with respect to web transactions, when a port 80 request arrives for a web page, it arrives in the form of a socket connection to an IP address, which then transmits a requested file path (i.e., “GET/index.htm”). The browser, in modern browser/server combinations, transmits the domain name of the server the user is attempting to access, transmitting, for example, “HTTP_HOST:shuster.com”. Using the IP address, HTTP_HOST, or a combination, together with the requested file path, the server maps the request to a specified file (or executable or script) and returns the data in accordance with its programming. When a zone file includes a wildcard representation for a subdomain, the DNS server may thereby be configured to return the same IP address for all wildcard sub-domains. In cooperation with the DNS server, the corresponding web server may be configured to return data provided specially for one or more of those sub-domains, optionally using a wildcard configuration. Optionally, the web server may use the name of one or more of the sub-domains to further identify the file path, e.g., the server may modify a GET request specifying “http://gary.shuster.com” to read “GET/gary/shuster.com”. Thus, existing technology permits wildcard entries in zone files of a domain name system to denote subdomains off of any domain that is second-level or higher, for example, *.second.com.
However, existing addressing technology cannot address variations within the root domain itself, using wildcard or other methods. Instead, existing technology maintains separate registration and handling of each unique second-level domain name. Therefore, existing wildcard techniques cannot prevent registration and use of similar root domains by different entities, nor the resulting deleterious effects of such practices as discussed above. If would be desirable, therefore, to provide new methods and systems for registration and use of domain names that overcomes these and other limitations of the prior art.